Today's notes: Thy Sins Be Forgiven Thee

Context:

What is man believing/doing?:

marveling and glorifying God even though they do not connect Jesus to God in the sense He means for them

scribes examining the doctrine of Jesus for error, accusing Him openly before questioning Him in front of His own people

What is making man to believe/do as he is doing?:

the sick are healed, why not be healed?

they are religious people but do not know God as revealed in Jesus

scribes do not believe Jesus is God and therefore does not have the power to forgive sins

Notes:

The people themselves take this as God's power being given, in this case to a man, in our discussion to a emptied submitted obedient triune member of the Godhead. That we would see this as His power used at His will and discretion conflicts with the language and context of the gospels. How much of this submission was sensed by others may have emboldened them against Him in the future.

Future context may suggest that this accusation is one of an unknown number of growing reasons that the people of His own city so greatly avoided and ignored Jesus reducing the number of great works to few.

Key Messages:

What does this say about our present condition?

Accusation often comes before inquiry. Scribes know what they know because they go unchallenged. Knowledge is not always for the sake of knowledge but authority. When they are challenged the people are made to feel their authority, therefore they largely remain unchallenged.

There is the possibility of being so right, so perfectly right to the point of overlooking one simple fact that makes everything you know to be right absolutely wrong. Certainly man does not have the authority to forgive sins. To suggest so is blasphemy. This however is not a man and the Father has set out to prove just that. To suggest that He is not when He is is a much greater blasphemy. It is saying that the evidence the Father has provided is nothing but a lie.

Good intention is largely for the sake of good intention. A neighbor is sick, a neighbor is brought to a healer, the better the healer the more people that come. Little of any of this has to do with God and the signaling of God's chosen one, the suggestion of which certainly turns many away. What then becomes of the sick neighbor?